The Carroll College men's basketball team will have some fresh faces and a few new looks as they begin their season at home tonight against the University of Regina.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m., but the teams will have to wait until after the Carroll volleyball team finishes its match with Montana Tech, which begins at 7 p.m.

New recruits like Salt Lake Community College transfer Chris Medina, Montana Gatorade Player of the Year Andy Garland and freshman Jim Mee of Libby are all expected to see significant playing time, but the Saints squad isn't without its stars from last season.

Senior Chad Vaculin, a first-team all-conference selection at guard, averaged 14.4 points per game to lead Carroll on the floor.

He's joined by fellow seniors Josh Saunders, Chris Kaschmitter, Scott Stockwell and Zach Parks.

"We have five seniors, and every one of them have played in big games," said head coach Gary Turcott. "They were all on the team that won the Frontier Conference championship last year and went to the NAIA tournament.

"That's a great start."

Carroll won its last seven regular season games to capture a part of the Frontier Conference title. They used the run to finish 23-9 overall, 10-4 in the conference, but lost in the first round of the national tournament 82-73 to Robert Morris (Ill.).

Turcott said that his Saints are a little bit bigger than they were last season with four post players that range from 6-foot-5 to 6-foot-8. New additions Garland and Chase Godecke, a redshirt freshman, have proved to be versatile down low.

"Chase is a really fluid player and Andy's just unstoppable when he gets underneath the hoop," said Kaschmitter, who averaged 8.2 points per game last season to be the top returner at the post position. "I would definitely say we're deeper in the posts than we have in the past."

They'll also have to compete with Parks for playing time. He and fellow North Idaho transfer Stockwell have improved tremendously since arriving at Carroll last season, Turcott said.

Stockwell joins four other guards on the team.

"You've got a lot of guards coming back, at least the most guards since I've been here," said Saunders, a former Carroll football player who made a switch to the basketball team before last season. "Unlike last year, there's a core group of guys that have been playing together the last two or three years."

One addition that the Saints hope to fit in immediately is Medina. The junior is following on the heels of former SLCC product Sinan Guler, now a professional basketball player in Europe and member of the Turkish national team.

Medina brings with him much of the athleticism and defensive strengths that Guler brought with from junior college.

"Medina is a big-time athlete. He's a 6-5 wing player who can get to the rim, he's a good defender and rebounds hard," Turcott said. "He's had less than three weeks and we've thrown a whole new offense, a new defense and he's picked up a lot of it, but for anybody it's going to take some time."

The Saints will have plenty of it before they begin their conference season against rival Montana Tech on Jan. 9, 2009. Carroll will face off with 15 teams before then, beginning with Regina.

While the Saints hope to make another run at the NAIA tournament, they know that everyone in the conference will be looking at Westminster College as the outright favorites.

"This year there is a super team in the conference, and that's Westminster," Turcott said.

The Griffins are without All-American point guard Danny Reeder, who graduated last season, but bring back a powerhouse squad and some new recruits that will lead them to a strong season.

"Everybody's going to be chasing those guys this year," Turcott said.

For now, the Saints are just looking inward as they try to get their season started on the right note. The Saints beat the University of Regina 82-69 in the early part of last season and simply hope to click well since starting practice on Oct. 1.

"Right now our focus is just about worrying about ourselves, getting the new kids in the system and just remembering how to run our stuff," Saunders said. "It's definitely not like the conference where every week you're focused on that team. Right now it's just focused on yourself."

Assistant Sports Editor Jeff Windmueller: 447-4065 or jeff.windmueller@helenair.com